Represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), a national libertarian law firm and legal advocacy group, Pitch Pine and Punxsutawney are suing the Pennsylvania Game Commission, claiming game wardens possess “virtually unchecked power to enter private land to search for evidence of potential state hunting offenses.” The Pitch Pine and Punxsutawney complaint, filed Dec. 16, 2021, contends Pennsylvania game wardens, sans warrant or probable cause, often “roam for hours” and “spy on” private land in search of hunting violations. The wardens’ behavior, the lawsuit states, is a direct violation of Pennsylvania’s state constitution, which in Article 1, Section 8, explicitly protects “persons, houses, papers, and possessions.” (16 states have constitutions protecting “persons, houses, papers, and possessions” instead of the 4th Amendment’s “persons, houses, papers, and effects.”)
“I’m an old-school veteran, as was my father and grandfather, and we all followed the law. I’ve got friends as police officers and my son is studying criminology right now in college,” Mikesell says. “How in the world did America get to the place where local police officers or state police or FBI agents have to get warrants and probable cause, yet a game warden can have free reign on private land?”
“We’re literally dealing with game wardens hiding on our land to catch guys committing some kind of infraction,” Mikesell exclaims. “I wonder if they’re using game cameras on our own private land to watch and monitor us; I have deep suspicions.”
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